of the transit arrived, the "probabilities" were set at defiance by the weather at Yokohama being finer than at Nagasaki.

What the public now have to look forward to is the final result of all these expeditions; and this is something which we regret to find there is no immediate prospect of learning. No nation has yet made any official publication even of its observations. The fact is that the observing parties have brought home an immense mass of material, the working up of which requires much consideration and great labor. The greatest accuracy must be sought after at every step, and any attempt to push through the complicated operations which are necessary so as to obtain immediate results would be entirely futile. In order to compare the times of the observations in the two hemispheres the longitudes of all the stations must be known. Observations for this purpose were made by the parties; but to calculate the results is a much slower and more difficult process than to make the observations. Another tedious work will be the reading of the photographic negatives. The computation of the contact observations will be easier; indeed, a French mathematician has actually published a result (8.87" for the solar parallax) from the observations of a single pair of stations. But a result of this sort is hardly better than guess-work; and, as it is said that the other results of the French observations are different, we may fear that the above result was published only because it came out about right. Altogether, we fear it will be two or three years before the observations by each nation are worked up ready for publication; and when this is done, it will only furnish the data from which some mathematician will deduce the final result. Even then every thing will be carried through much more rapidly than in the case of the transit of 1769, notwithstanding that, owing to the more refined modern methods, the labor of working up the old observations was much less than must be devoted to the recent ones.

ON THE OBSERVATION OF VARIABLE STARS.

A second catalogue of variable stars, with valuable notes relating thereto, has just been published by Schönfeld, whose first catalogue, in 1866, with the additions of 1868, is already

well known to the few astronomers who are sufficiently interested in this subject to institute observations upon these objects. To Argelander, Schmidt, and Schönfeld is due the greater part of the credit of having advanced our knowledge of the variability of the brightness of stars to its present degree of precision, It seems to be unfortunate that so very few astronomers occupy themselves with this portion of observational astronomy, the neglect of which, in fact, seems entirely unjustifiable. The conclusions in reference to the physical condition of the stars that may be attained by observations of the variable stars are so related to those derivable from the analysis of their light made by means of the spectroscope that it is surprising that the older sister of these two branches of observation is, in these later times, so much neglected.-Vierteljahrsschrift der Astron. Gesellschaft, X., 74.

TIME ARRANGEMENT AT PITTSBURGH.

In his account of the very perfect arrangements at Pittsburgh for the regulation of the city time, Professor Langley states that, by the discrepancies of clocks and watches, the amount of time wasted is in the aggregate very considerable, and is indirectly felt by every individual, making it a public convenience to have a simple and universally accessible means of obtaining standard time throughout the community. The arrangements devised by him for doing this are in some degree peculiar to Pittsburgh, which is as yet in advance of all other American cities in this respect. The astronomers at the Observatory in Allegheny City having accurate time for conducting their observations, it was only necessary to secure some means by which this time could be reliably and widely distributed. Electricity was called in to do this, a current being automatically sent from the observatory clock to the large tower clock in the City Hall at every beat of the seconds pendulum, and by an electro-magnetic arrangement in the turret that clock is caused to beat in perfect unison with the standard at the observatory; it also automatically gives notice to the observatory if it is in error to any extent. At the exact second of noon a special current is sent, which raises a detent, and allows a hammer to strike the large bell at the proper instant. The public appreciation of the convenience and utility of the system is daily shown.

by the attention given to the stroke at noon. During nearly two years there has not been any interruption from the failure of the electro-magnetism.-Langley in Account of the New City Hall, Pittsburgh.

METEORITES IN INDIA.

The details have recently been received of a very remarkable fall of meteoric stones that took place on the 23d of September, 1873, in India. The largest pieces and the greatest number fell near the village of Kahirpur, in latitude 29° 56′ N., longitude 72° 12′ E. Five stones are mentioned as having fallen at this place, but others appear to have been obtained. At a number of other places stones also fell, and the whole district over which the fall seems to have spread has a length of sixteen miles in a southeast and northwest direction, and a breadth of about three miles. Many of the stones were found imbedded in the earth at a depth of about eighteen inches. The largest three weighed ten pounds, and were very irregular in shape, and all broken. As to the composition of these aerolites, it is of the usual steel-gray color and dense crystalline texture. gravity of one of the pieces is given at 3.66. ance of the meteor was exceedingly brilliant, and its disappearance was followed, after an interval of about three and a half minutes, by a loud report, whose long reverberation died away like distant thunder.-Journal of the Asiatic Society, Bengal, 1874, 34.

The specific
The appear-

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Renouf has communicated to the Society of Biblical Archæology the result of his study of the astronomical calendar which was discovered in 1829 by Champollion near Thebes, and which was supposed by him to present a table of the constellations and their influences for all the hours of each month in the year. This calendar, which has for fifty years formed the subject of numerous publications and speculations, is now interpreted in a very different manner by Renouf, who decides that it is a record of the position of the stars in the sky at certain times in the night. It is, in fact, a table of observations, and not of astronomical calculations. Once in the course of every fifteen nights the observer ap

pears to have noted down at each successive hour the name of the particular star which was then actually upon the meridian. We do not know how he determined his meridian, what instrument he used, or by what contrivance he limited his observations, but he seems to have noted the passage of stars over seven different vertical lines. If the star were crossing the first line, beginning from the east, it was noted down as being "on the left shoulder;" if it were on the fourth line, which represented the meridian, it was put down as "in the middle;" if on the fifth line, it was observed as "on the right," and so on. The epoch at which these observations were made is calculated to have been within one century of the year B.C. 1500. From this calendar Renouf restores approximately the Egyptian names of a number of stars well known to us at the present time. Thus Alpha Orionis of modern astronomy corresponds with the Egyptian constellation known as the "Goose's Head;" the Pleiades were known to the Egyptians as "Chu;" Coma Berenices was called by them "The many stars," and so on.-Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology, III., 400.

B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY.

ON THE EVAPORATION OF WATER FROM HARD AND BROKEN SOILS.

In the course of an extended investigation by Schleh into the relation between water and plants, he shows that in respect to soils that are either matted down hard or well broken up, the former elevates by capillarity the water quicker and higher than the latter. If, then, layers of disintegrated soil are placed above masses of solid earth, the elevation of the water to the upper surface from the latter stratum is checked as soon as it comes to the loose soil. As the capillary power to elevate is diminished, so also is evaporation checked by the broken character of the soil; so that, as a general result of his investigation, a soil pressed hard together loses by far more water under the daily influence of the sun and the winds than a soil similarly circumstanced, but in which the upper surface is well broken up. The experiments of Schleh therefore give exact results, entirely confirmatory of the general practice of agriculturists.-19 C, VIII., 136.

ON THE CONDUCTIVITY OF VARIOUS KINDS OF SOIL FOR HEAT,

A. von Littrow, as the result of investigation into the conductivity for heat of various kinds of earth, concludes that the principal influence upon the conductivity of dry soils is exerted by their mechanical constitution, the conductivity being determined by the quality, as recognized by the microscope, of those portions of the soil that can be washed away. As the fineness of the grains of the soil increases the conductivity diminishes. Organic substances diminish the conductivity, and the influence of chemical constitution disappears in comparison with the mechanical features. Wet soils conduct the heat better than dry ones; in the pores of such soil water, which is a good conductor, has replaced the air, which is a poor conductor. With some exceptions, damp soils conduct heat even better than water does. Consequently in general the materials composing the soils must, of themselves, conduct heat better than water.